The Golden State Warriors’ decision to trade Jordan Poole to the Washington Wizards in return for Chris Paul sent shockwaves throughout the NBA world.
It’s rare that a team gives its young star a $100 million extension over the summer, just to turn around ship him off for a 38-year-old point guard less than one year later.
So what led to Golden State’s decision?
As it turns out, head coach Steve Kerr apparently wasn’t too fond of the headaches that came with Poole. NBA insider Jason Dumas revealed as much during a recent interview.
Interesting stuff from @JDumasReports on Kerr and JP’s relationship 👀 pic.twitter.com/nSy3JYOd7a
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) July 7, 2023
“I honestly think the relationship between [Poole] and Steve was more of what got him traded than his relationship with him and Draymond Green,” Dumas said.
“I just think [Kerr] was kinda fed up with the fact that Jordan was kinda huffin’ and puffin’ that he wasn’t in the right role for him. I think that had more to do with him being moved than that punch. The punch didn’t help and his relationship with Draymond wasn’t great, but I think Steve was more fed up than anything.”
It came out earlier this week that Klay Thompson also hated Poole. And of course Poole’s relationship with Draymond Green is a matter of public record.
So based on all that, it has become increasingly clear why the Warriors felt like they needed to dump Poole this summer – at any cost.
Luka is having himself quite the weekend. https://t.co/CPDJoX8aSu
— Game 7 (@game7__) July 8, 2023
Poole also didn’t help his case any by pouting over playing time despite shooting 34.1 percent from the field and 25.4 percent from three in this year’s playoffs.
That being said, he is still just 24 years old. He still has plenty of time to evolve into being the sort of player he showed flashes of being during the Warriors’ title campaign two seasons ago.
Will Kerr and Golden State one day regret cutting ties with Poole so abruptly? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
